FW: Announcing Finalists for the OpenJDK Community Innovator's Challenge

Andrew John Hughes gnu_andrew at member.fsf.org
Wed Mar 19 08:48:26 UTC 2008


On 19/03/2008, Ted Neward <ted at tedneward.com> wrote:
> Given that it would appear that my proposal for updating the build process
>  to use a free compiler has apparently been accepted (see below), is there a
>  good time to start thinking about doing the migration work? Are there any
>  major build changes up & coming? I know Kelly has said there's some plans to
>  move the corba project out to an entirely Ant-driven process, so if that's
>  going to happen any time soon, I'll just leave it out of the migration
>  process. (I think the corba stuff still uses the C compiler for some of it,
>  no?)
>
>  There's a two-step process I want to take with this:
>  1) Let's leave most of the build infrastructure in place and just try to
>  swap in Visual C++ 2008 Express.
>  2) Let's see about moving over to MinGW32's infrastructure (instead of
>  Cygwin's) and see if that doesn't help reduce the path problems we're
>  currently facing in the Windows build of OpenJDK.
>  2) Let's see about moving over to the MinGW32 gcc compiler for building on
>  windows, and thus remove the dependency on Microsoft's compiler completely,
>  in case VC++ ever moves out of a free (as in beer or as in speech) SKU.
>
>  My goal is to ensure that I hit #1 by the close of the project period
>  (August), and get as far down 2 and 3 as possible.
>
>  Any thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas for how best to tackle this? You (the guys
>  at Sun) have a lot more experience with this codebase than I, so any tips,
>  pointers or suggestions are appreciated.
>
>  Ted Neward
>  Java, .NET, XML Services
>  Consulting, Teaching, Speaking, Writing
>  http://www.tedneward.com
>
>
>  > -----Original Message-----
>  > From: announce-bounces at openjdk.java.net [mailto:announce-
>  > bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Rich Sands
>  > Sent: Monday, March 17, 2008 6:54 PM
>  > To: announce at openjdk.java.net; challenge-discuss at openjdk.java.net
>  > Subject: Announcing Finalists for the OpenJDK Community Innovator's
>  > Challenge
>  >
>  > OpenJDK Community,
>  >
>  > We're pleased to announce the finalists for the OpenJDK Community
>  > Innovator's
>  > Challenge. The judges have been meeting and discussing the 18 proposals
>  > received
>  > during the first phase of the Challenge, and evaluating these proposals
>  > based on
>  > their technical merit, and their likely impact on the OpenJDK Community
>  > and the
>  > adoption of OpenJDK-based implementations in new markets, for new
>  > applications and
>  > uses. It was not an easy decision, as most of the proposals were
>  > thoughtful and
>  > demonstrated passion and commitment to this code base and the
>  > community. The seven
>  > Finalists, in order of receipt of their proposals, are:
>  >
>  >
>  > Closures for Java                                    Neal Gafter
>  >
>  > Implement XRender pipeline for Java2D                Clemens Eisserer
>  >
>  > Provide date and time library from JSR-310           Stephen
>  > Colebourne,
>  >                                                       Michael
>  > Nascimento Santos
>  >
>  > Portable GUI backends                                Roman Kennke,
>  > Mario Torre
>  >
>  > Virtual Machine Interface                            Andrew John Hughes
>  >
>  > Free Software synthesizer implemention for
>  > the OpenJDK project                                  Karl Helgason
>  >
>  > OpenJDK on Windows                                   Ted Neward
>  >
>  >
>  > The judges, all Sun employees, are Alan Bateman, Alex Buckley, Danny
>  > Coward, Joe
>  > Darcy, Ray Gans, James Gosling, Onno Kluyt, Jim Melvin, Alex Potochkin,
>  > Phil Race,
>  > Mark Reinhold, and Rich Sands.
>  >
>  > We want to thank everyone who has entered their proposal into the
>  > Challenge. It is
>  > very exciting to see the level of enthusiasm and interest among
>  > developers for the
>  > OpenJDK code base. The finalists were chosen based on the completeness
>  > and relevance
>  > of their proposals and the degree to which the judges felt the end
>  > results were both
>  > achievable and valuable to the community at this time. Proposals that
>  > were not
>  > selected as finalists are still valuable and interesting but Sun could
>  > not select
>  > them all! The judges hope that everyone who has participated so far in
>  > the Challenge
>  > will consider continuing their efforts in the Community, and
>  > collaborating with their
>  > peers and with Sun to further the goals of the OpenJDK project.
>  >
>  > One other thing to remember -- there is no guarantee that completed
>  > Challenge
>  > projects will be integrated into the main OpenJDK code base, or into
>  > the Java SE
>  > Platform specification (which is governed by the JCP). Being chosen as
>  > a Finalist or
>  > completing a project for the Challenge might help to demonstrate the
>  > feasibility of a
>  > particular API or language proposal but it does not say anything about
>  > the likelihood
>  > of such a project becoming an approved JSR, or about the code being
>  > integrated into
>  > the main branch of the OpenJDK code base. Both the spec and the code
>  > are managed
>  > under processes that are separate from the Challenge.
>  >
>  > The finalists will be notified and project space set up for them if
>  > needed in the
>  > OpenJDK Community. As required by the Challenge rules, work must be
>  > done in the open,
>  > and the entire OpenJDK community is welcome to watch and comment as the
>  > projects
>  > progress. The Innovators Challenge will close on August 4th at which
>  > time each
>  > project will be reviewed to verify that it met the completion criteria
>  > of its
>  > proposal. Cash prizes will be awarded shortly afterwards.
>  >
>  > Thanks again to everyone who has participated. Good luck to all
>  > Finalists on your
>  > projects!
>  >
>  > Regards,
>  >
>  >      --  rms
>  >
>  > --
>  > Rich Sands                     Phone: +1 781 881 4067 / x81524
>  > Community Marketing Manager    Email: richard.sands at sun.com
>  > Java SE Marketing              SMS: 6172830027 at vtext.com
>  > Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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>

So, if I'm reading this correctly, the project is to make the build on
Windows both easier and Free?  Your initial proposal was a little
unclear (at least to me), and I couldn't work out whether or not you
were proposing shifting from a Free build system (Cygwin) to a
non-Free one (MSVC).  This sounds different again, so it would be
great to have some clarification.  I'm speaking merely as an observer
here; I have enough problems building OpenJDK on GNU/Linux.  I
wouldn't even want to attempt it on a Windows installation, so great
job in taking that on! :)

Cheers,
-- 
Andrew :-)

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